Controversial Curriculum Taught in Public Schools

Now that the sequester has officially gone into effect, many are wondering how spending cuts will impact the public school system across the country. While federal funding cuts would not take effect for any schools until the new school year begins in the fall, concerns are now in educators', parents', students', and community members' minds. In fact, some districts are already taking steps to make appropriate adjustments in case federal funding does not come as planned.

What is the Sequester?

The sequester is a series of budget cuts that were enacted by the Budget Control Act and signed by President Obama in August 2011. The budget cuts were designed to incentivize Congress to find a solution to the country’s debt crisis. They were never meant to go into effect, but a stalemate in Congress has led to the implementation of the dreaded sequester.

According to the Huffington Post, the sequester impacts most current government spending. The U.S. military and national security operations will see about $550 billion of the $1.2 trillion in cuts. The rest will be cut from domestic programs, including unemployment benefits, health care – and education. Due to how the sequester was set up, some areas of federal funding, such as Medicare, social security, and money spent on wars, will see no impact.

The sequester took effect on March 1 at 11:59 p.m. Congress could still minimize the impact of the new law by coming to an agreement on a different approach to balancing the

Denver Public Schools Buck Trend, Plug School-to-Prison Pipeline

At a time when many public schools across the country are working to add a police presence to the school environment, Denver Public Schools is seeking to do the opposite. As one of the largest school districts in the country, in a state that has seen more than its share of violence, this system is bucking the trend in an effort to plug the school-to-prison pipeline. With the help of a local activist group, the school district is changing its policies on school discipline and the involvement of the criminal justice system within the school system.

New Policy, New Discipline Procedures

Education Week reports that Denver Public Schools recently signed an agreement with the local police department to change the way discipline is handled within the schools in the 84,000-student district. At a time when many school districts across the country are adding police in response to the recent Newtown tragedy, DPS is stepping back its police influence in its schools. The agreement states that school resource officers (Denver police officers working in the schools) must make a distinction between crimes committed in schools and incidents that can be handled by traditional means of school discipline.

In addition to this new policy, school resource officers must undergo annual training to help them stay up to date on these issues. School administrators will also be required to participate in the training, to ensure everyone involved in

One of the largest school districts in the country is heating up the voucher debate, with recent budget proposals by the governor. Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has proposed an increase in funding to expand the voucher program beyond Milwaukee and Racine to other areas of the state. In addition, more money would go into the voucher schools already operating in the Milwaukee and Racine school districts. At the same time, Walker wants funding for public schools to remain the same for the next two years. His proposals have rankled many Wisconsin residents and taken the voucher debate to a whole new level.

This video reports on the heated opinions about Wisconsin's voucher program.

Details of the New Proposal

According to the Journal Sentinel, Walker wants to increase taxpayer funding to voucher schools by at least nine percent. On the flip side, Walker is asking for a one-percent increase in funding for state general aid, with provisions that would require public schools to ask for a referendum if they wanted to increase classroom resources. This new proposal would mean around $73 million in additional funding for the small voucher school network and around $129.2 million for the much larger public school system. The discrepancy in the numbers has some Wisconsin residents crying foul.

Walker’s plan would allow new districts to open up voucher programs if the district has at least

Graduation rates are on the rise at high schools across the county, putting the nation on track to achieve a 90-percent graduation rate by the year 2020. However, not all students are faring as well as those numbers make it sound, and plenty of factors may still impact the country’s ability to meet that completion goal. Check out the potential reasons why some states are seeking exponential increases to their own graduation rates, and why some students are not reaping the benefits of those improvements.

New Report Shows Encouraging Numbers

According to Reuters, the positive news comes from a recent report titled, “Building a Grad Nation,” co-authored by a leading expert on dropout rates from Johns Hopkins University, Robert Balfanz. Balfanz and his team noted that graduation rates are improving in an eclectic listing of states that include Texas, Tennessee, and Alaska. The report did not include numbers from Oklahoma or Kentucky since those states used a different formula from the rest to calculate their graduation rates.

The report lists the top performers in terms of graduation rates as Iowa, Vermont, and Wisconsin, which led the country with rates at nearly 90 percent. A handful of states still showed plenty of work ahead in their completion efforts. New Mexico and Nevada fell at the bottom of the pack, with graduation rates that barely reached 60 percent. Nationwide, graduation rates have increased from 71.7 percent in